| This college football season has had a whole lot of weirdness Stitched Keanu Neal Jersey , but very little at the top. Alabama and Clemson have separated themselves from the pack, Michigan might be doing the same, and undefeated Notre Dame has beaten Michigan.Under that, it’s a swirling vortex, but it’d be nice if the two worlds actually touched.Each week, I update a board of projected winners for every FBS game, tally up records, and guess what the Playoff committee and bowl committees would do with the results. Things get closer and closer to eventual accuracy as Selection Sunday nears, but more importantly, it’s some weekly fun!Below, projections for all 40 2018 bowl games. A lot of these will change dramatically over the next month, so if you don’t like where your team is listed, I bet a few wins on the field will change things!First, the College Football PlayoffCotton (Arlington, TX): No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 MichiganOrange (Miami): No. 2 Clemson vs. No. 3 Notre DameChampionship (Santa Clara, CA): No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 2 ClemsonSo yeah. Chalk. This would mean picking the Playoff rankings to remain exactly the same for about a month straight. That’s not exactly likely, but each individual way this could all go awry.I suppose Georgia could beat Bama, giving us instant drama as to which of these five misses the cut. Maybe Notre Dame could lose to Syracuse, which would probably add FRESH NEW NAME ... Oklahoma. Michigan could certainly lose to Ohio State, which should give us a WILD AND WACKY Playoff final four that includes FUN UPSTART ... Ohio State.Maybe multiple of these things happen as Washington State wins out, and then we actually get something weird.Buuuuut it sure looks like a season in which the ruling class towers over a lot of chaos and carnage.(Also, I’m giving up on my resoundingly booed idea that Michigan could jump Notre Dame on Selection Sunday. Mediocre Northwestern being all Michigan could show for its 12th win would seem to moot all that.)Next: the rest of the New Year’s SixSugar (New Orleans): Oklahoma vs. GeorgiaRose (Pasadena Youth Keanu Neal Jersey , CA): Ohio State vs. Washington StatePeach (Atlanta): Florida vs. UCFFiesta (Glendale, AZ): LSU vs. West VirginiaThe Sugar and Rose have held steady for a month or more (some day, the Rose Bowl social media accounts will include my projections in their roundups, I just know it), while Kentucky’s fall from the NY6 opens up a spot for, uh, Florida, I guess? Syracuse? Mississippi State? Kentucky itself, which beat Florida? Texas? This is a deeply bizarre, messy season, and it’s kind of a shame the Playoff might not reflect that at all.And now, everything elseCitrus (Orlando): Penn State vs. KentuckyOutback (Tampa): Michigan State vs. MissouriGator (Jacksonville): Northwestern vs. South CarolinaHoliday (San Diego): Iowa vs. WashingtonLiberty (Memphis): Baylor vs. AuburnMilitary (Annapolis, MD): Cincinnati vs. Georgia TechSun (El Paso): Virginia vs. OregonBelk (Charlotte): NC State vs. TennesseeAlamo (San Antonio): Texas vs. UtahArizona (Tucson): San Diego State vs. ULMCamping World (Orlando): Syracuse vs. Texas TechMusic City (Nashville): Boston College vs. Texas A&MTexas (Houston): Iowa State vs. Mississippi StatePinstripe (New York City): Pitt vs. PurdueIndependence (Shreveport, LA): Duke vs. Stanford*Cheez-It (Phoenix): Oklahoma State vs. CalQuick Lane (Detroit): BYU* vs. WMU*SERVPRO (Dallas): Minnesota vs. North TexasRedbox (Santa Clara, CA): Wisconsin vs. Arizona StateHawaii: FAU vs. HawaiiDollar General (Mobile): Buffalo vs. Georgia SouthernArmed Forces (Fort Worth): SMU vs. Army*Birmingham: Houston vs. UABPotato (Boise): Toledo vs. Boise StateBahamas: FIU vs. NIUGasparilla (Tampa): USF vs. Wake ForestFrisco (TX): Tulane vs. OhioBoca Raton: Temple vs. MTSUNew Orleans: Louisiana Tech vs. TroyCamellia (Montgomery, AL): EMU vs. Appalachian StateLas Vegas: Fresno State vs. USCCure (Orlando): Memphis vs. Arkansas StateNew Mexico (Albuquerque): Marshall vs. Utah State* = Taking another conference’s unfilled bid. One thing: because of all the rampant mediocrity this year, I do not have enough spots here for all the likely bowl-eligible teams. I don’t have room for Nevada and UL Lafayette, I’m being hard on Miami to free up space, and I’m assuming Virginia Tech doesn’t schedule an emergency eligibility-saving game (though VT will surely want to protect the country’s second-longest bowl streak).As always, remember bowl bids are not strictly based on merit. A few conferences have rules that prevent bowls from taking teams with clearly lesser records over more deserving teams, but bowls mostly care about butts in seats. If you beat a bigger program that’s closer to a bowl both of you want, you’re not guaranteed to get it. Week 9 of the NFL season saw several candidates vie to take Hue Jackson’s vacated spot at the top of the “which head coach will get fired next?” betting sheet. Vance Joseph and Sean McDermott rose to the top of the list last week Stitched Takkarist McKinley Jersey , but each earned some small mercies in Week 10. Sunday bore witness as McDermott rode Matt Barkley all the way to a blowout win. Joseph couldn’t screw up a bye week. That temporarily cooled their hot seats and allowed the world the opportunity to take solace in non-Bills, non-Broncos failures for the weekend.And we got plenty of chances to take pride in their shame Sunday. The weekend was loaded with blowouts, ranging from the Saints’ 37-point de-pantsing of the Bengals to the Buccaneers’ quieter, but somehow similarly embarrassing, 16-3 defeat in Washington. So which head coach did the worst job? Here are five candidates, including admitted felon Sean Payton.Jon Gruden’s franchise quarterback has openly given upGruden isn’t getting fired. He’s on the hook for nine more years and $90 million after this season, and his one true mission over the next two seasons is to build something resembling a talented young roster for the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas in 2020.But, eesh, 2018 started off embarrassing and has only gotten worse. The Raiders have hemorrhaged star players (Khalil Mack, Amari Cooper) in their quest to rebuild, |
